By: Karel Mrazík
April 21, 2026 5 min read
The European Commission has introduced a proposal for a new regulation—the so-called "Digital Omnibus"—aimed at unifying and simplifying existing European data protection legislation. Among its key promises is a reform of the rules for storing data on terminal equipment. This is a direct response to "consent fatigue," the phenomenon where users blindly click "accept" on anything just to remove the pop-up windows blocking their content. If approved, this proposal could fundamentally transform the current cookie banner regime.
Currently, the legal basis for cookie banners is found in Article 5 of the ePrivacy Directive, while the actual processing of data is governed by the GDPR. The Digital Omnibus seeks to consolidate this fragmented regulation into a single framework: the GDPR. This would involve adding two pivotal articles (88a and 88b) to the GDPR text, revising the rules for obtaining consent. The goal is to expand the range of situations where website operators are no longer required to "bother" users with interactive banners.
According to the proposal, the obligation to obtain user consent would not apply in cases where information storage is essential for:
Security: Ensuring the safety of the service.
Technical Stability: Maintaining the functional integrity of the site.
Requested Services: Providing a service explicitly requested by the user (e.g., managing a shopping cart).
A significant shift occurs in internal analytics. Under the new rules, measuring traffic and website effectiveness would be permitted without prior consent, provided the data is used solely for aggregated internal purposes and does not lead to subsequent user profiling for targeted advertising. In practice, this means purely informational or service-oriented websites could potentially scrap cookie banners entirely.
Another major element is the introduction of a "cooling-off period." This regulation aims to stop the practice where websites repeatedly demand consent during every visit until the user finally gives in. If a user expresses their choice (e.g., rejects cookies), the controller would be obliged to respect this decision for a set period and would be prohibited from repeating the consent request during that interval.
The long-term goal of the Digital Omnibus is also to shift preference management away from individual websites and directly into browser or device settings. Users would set their preferences once at the browser level, and website operators would be required to respect them automatically. Consequently, a user would not have to click through consent forms on every individual site, but only once in their system settings.
While the proposal expands exemptions for technical and analytical cookies, data processing for targeted advertising will continue to require active consent. Therefore, the Digital Omnibus likely won't lead to the complete disappearance of cookie banners, but rather to a reduction in their frequency and a gradual evolution of their form.
Alongside traditional banners, we may see hybrid solutions emerge—combining automatic browser preferences with informational notices where other regulatory requirements must still be met. Nevertheless, the Digital Omnibus represents a significant step toward a clearer, more user-friendly cookie environment, though its implementation will require technical modernization and a fair amount of patience from users.
This text was translated by AI.
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